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TV Review: Wayward Pines

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Wayward Pines TV ReviewCOURTESY OF FOX

APRIL 24, 2015 | 07:00AM PT
TV Columnist
Brian Lowry
TV Columnist
@blowryontv
Adapted from Blake Crouch s novels with an M. Night Shyamalan-directed pilot, Waywa
rd Pines suggests various series
Twin Peaks and Lost come to mind but may owe its cl
sest debt to The Prisoner, the 1960s cult favorite that featured a spy confined in
a strange village from which there appeared to be no exit. Perfectly suited to
a 10-part limited run, this Fox show has capitalized on its concentrated approac
h to cast the project to the hilt, with the disclaimer that viewers shouldn t beco
me too attached to anyone. All told, it s a solid TV version of summer popcorn far
e.
Matt Dillon stars as
issing colleagues in
ted by the fact that
a Gugino), with whom

Ethan Burke, a Secret Service agent pursuing leads on two m

the idyllic, titular Idaho town. The assignment is complica
one of the wayward agents is his former partner, Kate (Carl
he had an affair.

Burke awakens from a car accident in the hospital, where Melissa Leo plays the c
reepiest nurse this side of One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest. Pretty quickly, he real
izes there s no way to call out of the town, seemingly no escape and a brutal auth
oritarian regime in place
including a ruthless, ice-cream-eating sheriff (Terren
ce Howard) that doesn t tolerate dissent. It s fear that keeps everyone in line, he s to
ld.
Ethan befriends a local bartender (Juliette Lewis), but there are nagging questi
ons of who can be trusted. And that also applies to Ethan s increasingly agitated
wife (Shannyn Sossamon), who doesn t receive much help from her husband s bosses in
seeking information regarding his whereabouts.
Everything about Wayward Pines is tense and spooky from the get-go (Chad Hodge ada
pted the project for TV), down to the old-fashioned rotary phones, which certain
ly plays into Shyamalan s strengths as a filmmaker. It s in finishing off his projec
ts where his feature career has been on a downward trajectory ever since The Sixt
h Sense and Unbreakable.
The advantage of a close-ended format is that it allows for teasing out the thre
ads and unfolding clues
is it an experiment? Supernatural? Something akin to The
Truman Show?
with the promise that audiences won t be forced to wander in the wilde
rness for too long awaiting answers.
SEE MORE:Fox Giving

Wayward Pines

a Free, Weeklong Global Preview

That said, the cat-and-mouse game begins to become a bit tiresome in the later e
pisodes (five were previewed), before the fifth offers a fairly concrete explana
tion regarding what s going on
although even that, seemingly, should be viewed wit
h skepticism, given the unseen forces manipulating and controlling the inhabitan
ts.

Fox did luck out in one respect with Howard s post- Empire involvement, which the net
work has been eager to tout in its advertising. Still, he s just one part of an im
pressive ensemble of players, including Toby Jones and Hope Davis, topped by Dil
lon, whose slow-healing face lacerations must have been a makeup department nigh
tmare.
The elaborate kickoff campaign also includes a global preview of the
plenty of promotion within American Idol, all of which should help
on the map wherever that is. The limited time investment involved
Pines isn t Lost, despite the mysterious similarities, and that s
. Because based on half the journey, for those with a taste for such
oks like a show worth finding.

pilot, and
put the program
means Wayward
probably a good thing
fare, it lo